Does your business currently accept or plan to accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) in the future? If so please take note that effective September 21, the government will no longer process EBT transactions or provide free equipment to merchants who were not approved by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) prior to March 21, due to the revised Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Therefore, business owners are now tasked with the responsibility offinding a third-party vendor who will process their EBT transactions or risk the loss of business from consumers whomutilize EBT as their primary form of payment.

A growing amount of the U.S. population depends on government assistant programs such as SNAP, previously known as Food Stamps, in order to purchase healthy foods that would otherwise be unaffordable for low income families. SNAP benefits are processed via EBT cards that resemble debit cards. Only merchants approved by the FNS may accept EBT as payment for eligible food items.

There are merchants, such as grocers, whose bottom line would suffer greatly if they no longer had the ability to accept EBT from their customers. Furthermore, if merchants were to discontinue acceptance of EBT as a form of payment, many consumers would be forced to pay out-of-pocket or shop elsewhere. For that reason, the ability to accept and use EBT as a payment option is imperative for both merchants and consumers alike.

The resolution for SNAP-authorized retailers who prefer to continue accepting EBT payments is to locate a third-party processor before September 21. Many merchants may have already received a letter in the mail with this notification, along with a list of third-parties available to process EBT transactions. However, unless merchants already utilize one of the listed third-parties for credit card processing, it is advisable for business owners to shop around and find the best deal on the market.

When processed by the government, EBT transactions were processed at no charge to the business. The government also supplied SNAP-authorized retailers with the equipment required to process EBT transactions. Retailers switching to a third-party processing company will be subject to processing rates and equipment fees similar to credit card processing rates and fees. Popular EBT processing rates include monthly flat rates or per transaction rates dependent upon volume. However, the cost of processing is not the only factor merchants must analyze. More importantly are the customer service and benefits that processing companies offer their customers. Though large, well-known companies may be a business owner’s first consideration, it is wise to consider smaller, local companies for your processing needs.

Large processing companies are not capable of offering each merchant personalized service that many small, local processing companies pride themselves on. For example, if Company ABC uses a large processing company for their EBT services and it goes down after 5 p.m. on a Friday night, Company ABC may not get their machine replaced until the following week at the earliest, even after being on the phone for hours to remediate the issue. This may cost the merchant sales and return business. If Company ABC were a customer of a small, local processing company, the services could be provided in a more timely fashion, eliminating loss of sales and customers. This is the difference between corporate America and local businesses that succeed or fail based on the quality of their customer service.